Seizure precipitants in a community-based epilepsy cohort

Epileptic seizures can be provoked by several factors. Better understanding of these factors may improve a patient's sense of control and could reduce seizures. In daily practice, the recognition of seizure precipitants relies heavily on clinical or video-EEG evidence, which can be difficult to obtain. Studies of seizure provocation are largely based on selected hospital-based patient populations, which may lead to biased occurrence estimates. Self-reported seizure precipitants are rarely studied, yet are necessary to understand the experiences of patients and improve epilepsy management. We performed a cross-sectional community-based study of 248 epilepsy patients, selected by pharmacy records of anti-epileptic drug use. Self-reported seizure precipitants and potential associated characteristics were assessed using questionnaires. Almost half of all patients (47 %) reported one or more seizure precipitants, of which stress, sleep deprivation, and flickering lights were the most common. In this community-based setting, light-provoked seizures were especially frequent compared to the literature. Idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), a lower age at seizure onset, and having auras or prodromes were found to be important independent prognostic factors associated with provoked seizures. IGE and a younger age at seizure onset have been linked to provoked seizures in earlier reports. The finding of auras or prodromes as a prognostic factor was unexpected, though case reports have described provoked seizures in patients having auras. Assessment of these factors may facilitate the early recognition of seizure precipitants in daily clinical practice. This is important for the optimization of epilepsy management for a large group of patients, as provoked seizures are expected to occur frequently.